Compared on 1 November 2026, using Ancestry's own website and help pages.
What's the main difference between Kumbaa and Ancestry?
Ancestry is built for research. Its memberships open billions of records, hints that match records to people in your tree, other members' public trees, and AncestryDNA. If you want to know who your great-great-grandparents were, it's hard to beat.
Kumbaa is built for the family itself. One private archive for the tree, the photos with everyone's faces named, and the stories. You invite the family, and each of them fills in the branch they know best.
They don't do the same job, so you can use both: Ancestry to research, and Kumbaa to keep and share what the family knows.
Kumbaa and Ancestry side by side
| Kumbaa | Ancestry | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A private website for one family's tree, photos and stories. | A genealogy service: records, hints, member trees and DNA. |
| Price | 14 days free, then US$6.99 a month or US$69 a year, for the whole family. Everyone invited joins free. | US memberships: U.S. Discovery US$24.99 a month, World Explorer US$39.99, All Access US$59.99. Cheaper paid every 6 months or yearly. Two-week free trial. |
| Free account | No free plan; a 14-day free trial. | Build and share trees, search free collections. Most record images and other members' trees need a membership. |
| Sharing with family | Everyone invited joins free. Members edit their own branch. | Share a tree with invited people for free. Family Plan on World Explorer and All Access adds up to 4 people to the membership. |
| Who can see the tree | Only the people you invite. Closed to search engines and crawlers. | Trees are public by default, with living people hidden. Can be made private. |
| Historical records | None. | Billions, by membership level; Fold3 and Newspapers.com with All Access. |
| DNA | None. | AncestryDNA: origins, matches and traits. |
| Photos | 10 GB. Faces found and named once; every photo someone is in, on their page; albums, decades and a map. | Photos and media attached to people in the tree. |
| GEDCOM | Not yet. Import from a PDF, a document or a photo of a chart. | Upload and download, free. Downloads don't include photos. |
What does Ancestry do better?
Records and DNA, by a long way. Ancestry's hints turn up census entries, passenger lists and parish registers for people in your tree, and a DNA test can connect you to cousins you've never met. Kumbaa has neither, and doesn't try to. If those are what you need, use Ancestry.
Why keep your family somewhere private as well?
A tree on Ancestry is a research document. It's public unless you change it, and the people who see the most of it are other researchers. The things a family most wants to keep, like the wedding photos, Grandma's story, who's who in the 1994 Christmas photo, sit better somewhere only the family can see.
In Kumbaa, each family has its own private address behind sign-in. Faces are found in your browser as you add photos, and you name each person once. Anyone in the tree can be invited, and can add and correct their own side: parents, brothers and sisters, children and their families. Nothing is used to train AI models.
Does the family have to pay?
On Ancestry, anyone you invite can see a tree you share with them without paying. To search records themselves, they need a membership, or a place on your Family Plan (up to 4 people, on World Explorer and All Access).
On Kumbaa, whoever starts the archive pays US$6.99 a month or US$69 a year, and everyone they invite joins free, however many there are.
Which should you choose?
Choose Ancestry if…
- You want to research your ancestors in historical records.
- You want an AncestryDNA test and DNA matches.
- You want hints from other members' trees and records.
- You need GEDCOM to move a tree between programs.
Choose Kumbaa if…
- You want the family's tree and photos private, closed to strangers and search engines.
- You want the whole family in, free, each looking after their own branch.
- You have boxes of photos and want everyone in them named.
- You want a simple tree anyone in the family can walk, on a phone or a computer.
Where these facts come from
Ancestry's facts are from its own website and help pages, checked on 1 November 2026. Prices are in US dollars, and they change and vary by country, so check Ancestry's site before you decide. Kumbaa's are from our pricing page and the app itself. Spotted something out of date? Write to support@kumbaa.app.
- Ancestry products and prices (checked 1 November 2026)
- Become a member (membership comparison and Family Plan) (checked 1 November 2026)
- Free registered guest accounts (checked 1 November 2026)
- All Access membership (checked 1 November 2026)
- Ancestry free trials (checked 1 November 2026)
- Uploading and downloading trees (checked 1 November 2026)
Ancestry is a trademark of its owner. Kumbaa isn't affiliated with Ancestry.